Carpets and rugs have come to occupy a coveted place in our lives and homes. Carpets are handmade as well as machine made. Handmade carpets are more beautiful and sophisticated than the other ones. These carpets are given various designs and patterns by weavers through great skill and workmanship. It usually takes several months to complete a carpet of exceptional quality and value.

Two types of handmade carpets are particularly popular worldwide. These are the Persian carpets and the Oriental carpets. Persian carpets generally have two parts- the field or the central part and the borders. Geometrical, floral as well as medallion designs are used extensively in these carpets. They are hand knotted carpets which are tied with a single looping knot. The finest carpets may contain more than 50 knots per square cm. An average Persian carpet too has about 30 knots per sq. cm. Apart from the number of knots, the quality of a Persian carpet also depends on the knot density. The higher the knot density, more fine and expensive the carpet will be.

Carpets made in the Asian countries such as Turkey, India, Tibet, Nepal, Pakistan, China etc. are known as Oriental carpets. These are also hand knotted carpets. The most popular designs found in the oriental carpets include the Persian designs, the Turkoman allover designs, geometric and plain tribal designs. They are mostly made from natural fibers, especially wool. Strands of wool yarn are looped around the warp threads and knotted thereafter. The number of knots range from 20 to 600 per sq inch and can go upto 1,000 in the finest oriental carpets.

Handmade carpets, when categorized by origin, are known as Persian or Oriental Carpets. However, when studying carpets by weaves, they can be categorized into hand knotted, hand tufted, hand woven, braided and felted carpets. All of them can lend a great personality to our homes.